For more than 100 years, Des Moines Public Schools has provided an outstanding education to the students of our community. Today, our school district is a leader and innovator in public education, offering families some of the best educational choices in Iowa as we become the nation’s model for urban education.

Home to more than 60 schools located in every neighborhood of the community, Des Moines Public Schools provides families with choices to meet the educational needs of students from preschool through college-level courses.

With nearly 33,000 students and more than 5,000 employees, there are a lot of stories to tell about the work and accomplishments that take place each day at Des Moines Public Schools. From news releases and articles to our mobile app and social media, keep in touch with Iowa's largest provider of public education.

From teachers and principals to bus drivers and food service workers to financial analysts and technology specialists, Des Moines Public Schools is home to a dedicated team of professionals who all - directly and indirectly - contribute to the education of our students.

What sets DMPS apart? We provide families with more educational choices than any place in Iowa, educate top student scholars who go on to attend leading colleges and universities around the world, and are home to teachers recognized throughout the state and across the country as the best in their field.

The people of Des Moines elect seven members to serve as their representatives on the School Board. In turn, the Board is responsible for the governance of Iowa’s largest provider of public education. Learn more about your elected School Board members, and access information about past and upcoming meetings.

Identification

The DMPS Gifted and Talented Department screens students each year in the fall for possible identification and subsequent gifted and talented programming and services.

All elementary schools administer a blanket Test of Cognitive Development to incoming 2nd graders. Building norms are used to determine outliers 2 standard deviations from the norms in verbal, quantitative and non-verbal areas. While CogAT is well-suited to help educators make important student placement decisions, such as serving as a single indicator in identifying students for Gifted and Advanced Learning programs added to multiple criteria for determination, exclusive features such as the Ability Profile Score can be used to expand the educational opportunities of all students.

Overview of Identification Protocol (September-May)

A request for screening by the gifted and talented department may be submitted by a parent, teacher, school counselor, the student him/herself, the building GT consultant, or a school administrator. A formal “Request for Screening” packet includes the official request form, an observation form completed by the nominator, as well as any supporting data he or she wishes.

Once the nominator has submitted the request form and any supporting evidence, other sources of data are collected by the classroom teacher and/or the building GT consultant to create a portfolio supporting the screening of students for possible gifted and talented identification. The more comprehensive a profile submitted for screening, the better each building committee is able to understand the student, assess each student’s unique strengths and needs, and recommend appropriate programming options.

The portfolio is designed to provide a holistic look at each student’s strengths and needs, based upon on the age and grade of the student, the school the student attends, and the preferences of the instructional leaders in the student’s school. The screening committee in each school then meets to examine all submitted portfolios, determines which students’ needs are already being met in the regular classroom, and which students should be recommended for further assessment by the school’s assigned district GT consultant.

Those students the committee refers for further assessment are interviewed by the building consultant, and are administered those standardized and non-standardized assessments supported by gifted education research which the consultant believes will most fully reveal each student’s strengths and needs. At the conclusion of all testing building consultants communicate with parents, administrators and classroom teachers regarding the results of the identification process and recommendations when identifications are made. In all cases, programs and services are determined by need and potential benefit, not merely the identification.